Sorry for the (extremely) late response, I finally read the Long piece. You're right, I do like it quite a bit. The flexibility a system like that, or as you describe, would afford is immensely appealing. One thing I've been grateful for having a Colorado background was having the notion that local concerns are best addressed locally (I think the more populous coasts think they can just mandate what the rest of the country should be doing when they have no idea how the interior needs to function), and it seemed intuitive to me that if we use that logic our aim should be create as many localized states as possible. Something I used to argue for (although much less eloquently that this article and without some of the historical context of, say, Iceland) and will still occasionally let loose with when liquored up appropriately.eumaas wrote:Flex, you might be interested in the first. It's from (pre-anarchism?) Roderick Long and discusses a polycentric law system but in the context of a national government. Reading that, some thoughts occurred. You might even be able to build a broader modular system out of that, e.g. allowing people to opt out of certain taxes as long as they agree to surrender a right to certain services--that would satisfy the statist anti-welfare crowd, wouldn't it? There are plenty of rich people who are liberal in outlook and willing to pay taxes for the greater good of welfare for instance so I don't think welfare funding would be an issue, especially if there's a tit-for-tat renunciation of national services. Certainly variations in the design of the state have not been exhausted, so just from a model-building angle you could probably come up with some interesting schemes that satisfy individual liberty to a greater extent than current systems. Of course I oppose all states, but some are more tolerable than others! When I was a kid I would think up different governmental structures as a thought experiment to try and understand why things shake out like they do. I'm probably one of a very few people who liked to write constitutions as a kid. I also thought dinosaurs were cool, though, so I guess it all evens out.
As a kid, I liked to brainstorm Federation interstellar policy.
